Sweetcrasy

***

In the original story, no one knew that Irene was helping Johan, which allowed the ambushed encirclement to be broken. Thanks to that, she was able to use the magic circle that she and the knights had prepared to send Johan to the duchy.

At that moment, Ceda narrowly missed capturing Irene and Johann. Just as the magic circle activated, the sword thrown by Cedar grazed Johan’s cheek, and the two briefly locked eyes. This was the highlight of the “Escape from Gilia” arc.

“…You’re absolutely sure about what Irene looks like, right?”

“Yes. It’s in Cedar’s memory. She has red hair, a small frame around 158 cm tall, and her right hand was severed during the escape. She’ll be easy to recognize.”

“Good. And that woman, Irene, knows assassination techniques. Don’t underestimate her.”

“Yes. I’ll be careful.”

After the meeting ended, I grabbed Cedar and repeated the original story several times until we lay down in bed. Things were unfolding according to the plan we made, but the thought of actually confronting Johan made me anxious.

It might’ve been boring to hear the same thing again and again, but Cedar matched my nervous energy with enthusiasm.

“…Okay. That’s enough. As long as you don’t let your guard down, honestly, there shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

“Thank you. That really helped.”

Cedar replied politely, then lightly climbed onto the bed. As I watched him pull the blanket over himself, a sudden question came to mind.

“Have you ever fought Irene directly?”

“Not me, but… Gerard captured her during this war.”

“Oh… that huge knight?”

“Yes. Gerard is a knight with a long track record of hunting mages. His nickname is ‘Mage Hunter.’”

I grimaced, recalling the towering man who had laughed heartily while radiating an eerie hatred.

“He sure has a lot of people who hate him. Even the Milosians all want to kill him.”

“Gerard is originally from Milos.”

“W-What? A Milosian became an Imperial knight?”

I was surprised by information not even mentioned in the original. A Milosian, becoming a knight of the Empire… Well, the original didn’t give much focus to a knight named Gerard anyway, but still… I found it interesting why he made such a choice.

Cedar told the story without hesitation.

“Gerard was originally the eldest son of a rural noble family on the outskirts of Milos… A royal mage came to the region to collect monster materials and mistook Gerard’s fiancée, who was out hunting, for a monster and accidentally killed her.”

“…”

“After that, Gerard requested a noble’s trial, but there was no way to win against a mage protected by the royal court… So, he turned to the temple and trained in mage hunting. That’s when he became an Inquisitor.”

“…How did an Inquisitor end up in the Empire?”

“He assassinated that Milos royal mage. When one becomes an Inquisitor and receives baptism, anti-magic power becomes imbued in their blood… It lets them resist most spells with just their body. Right after receiving baptism, he followed the royal mage, ambushed him, and killed him before crossing into the Empire.”

“Holy… that’s insane!”

I realized that Gerard had made up his mind to kill the mage from the moment he joined the temple.

“B-But… is it really okay for the Empire to accept someone who murdered a Milos royal mage as a knight?”

“My unit is mostly made up of people with those kinds of backstories. Their identities get rewritten.

Even the name ‘Gerard’ was something I gave him.”

“Oh… So Gerard is your direct subordinate too? Like Immanuel?”

“Yes.”

So that’s why Gerard smiled kindly at me the last time.

“How many members are in your direct unit?”

“Seven in total.”

“Who are they?”

“Want me to tell you their names?”

“Yeah…”

Cedar paused, seemingly organizing his thoughts, then began.

“First, my chief aide is Immanuel. You saw him in the meeting room, right?”

“Oh… you mean the silver-haired guy with glasses?”

“Yes. Then there’s Gerard. He usually accompanies me when dealing with tricky mages. He’ll be coming with us this time too. I’m planning to have him handle Irene.”

“Aah…”

It felt a little uncomfortable, but Irene being one of Johan’s closest aides was definitely a threatening opponent, so having Gerard made sense.

“And then there’s Yulis. Do you remember the blond guy we saw before entering the meeting room?”

“Of course I remember. That psycho…!”

The one who demanded we gouge out eyes and tongues, and even made me bark like a dog. Cedar seemed to recall the incident too and continued with an apologetic expression.

“Yulis uses something called a ‘magic bullet’, basically a gun imbued with spells. He’s also good with a bow. I heard he trained under an elf a long time ago.”

“An elf?”

“Yes.”

Weren’t elves a race that distrusted humans to the extreme? The kind that would later support only Johan?

But that was the end of the talk about Yulis.

“There’s also a dark mage named Iolde in my unit. He’ll be working with Gerard this time. Lolde specializes in controlling magical beasts, he can even command wyverns. He stutters a bit, but he’s never failed to land one safely.”

“Wait, are we flying on wyverns this time?”

As someone with a fear of heights, I hoped to God that wasn’t the case… But Cedar nodded with a regrettable look.

“Yes. They said we can reach Gilia in two days.”

“I-I have acrophobia…”

“Don’t worry. I’ll ride with you.”

“Still… that’s not really the issue…”

“I’ll hold you well.”

‘Damn it… so there’s no avoiding the wyvern ride after all…’

I replied gloomily in acceptance. Thinking I was now convinced, Cedar moved on to the next member.

“Next is someone named ‘Kidan.’ We scouted him from an assassin guild… but I don’t think you’ll meet him right away. He’s currently on a long-term mission.”

“Huh.”

I’d never heard of the name Kidan in the original work. But since he was on a long-term mission, it probably meant an assassination job… and I wasn’t eager to meet an assassin anyway, so I felt a bit relieved.

“And then there’s Hugric, a spirit mage. He’s not joining this expedition, but you’ll meet him once we return to the Empire. He’s a bit quiet.”

“A spirit mage? I don’t remember seeing that in the original…”

“He uses tattoos or markings to house spirits in his body and commands them. Even Cedar only knows that spirits are a rare power, he doesn’t know much more.”

“Whoa.”

Cedar spoke casually, but out of all the members he’d mentioned so far, Hugric piqued my interest the most.

‘In fantasy novels, spirits are usually like cute little fairies, right?’

I definitely wanted to meet him someday… and as I was thinking that, Cedar spoke about the last member of the unit.

“And lastly, there’s this guy called Angel… He specializes in brainwashing, suggestion, hypnosis stuff like that. Usually, when we capture prisoners and want to break or control them, Angel steps in.”

“…That sounds terrifying.”

Perhaps noticing the fear in my voice, Cedar patted my shoulder comfortingly.

“He actually has the most normal personality out of all the members…”

“Still, I’m royalty from Milos. He’s not going to like me, is he…”

“If anything happens, I’ll stop him.”

“Thanks…”

Only after hearing Cedar’s reassuring words did my nerves finally begin to settle. I guess no matter how terrifying these people were, if Cedar could manage them, it should be okay.

I stopped my worrying thoughts and buried my face into the bed.

“Let’s just sleep.”

“Tired?”

“That, and… we’re heading to Gilia tomorrow, after all…”

“It’ll go well.”

Cedar muttered as if making a promise to himself.

“As long as we don’t make any mistakes…”

“…Right.”

After that, we blew out the candle and tried to sleep. I tossed and turned many times, and though Cedar stayed still, I had a feeling he wasn’t asleep either. But I didn’t speak to him, and it was only when the sky began to lighten that fatigue finally overtook me and I passed out.